The checklist is a good idea - thank you!

You're welcome, aeflaed, and glad you can use it! Here is another set of information about the Artisan/Entreprener Careers for those who have been wondering:

Artisan or Entrepreneurial Occupations
In the Medieval Charter Challenge

Artisan or Entrepreneurial Type Occupations are those in which the sim should be able to make a little money -- maybe not enough to live on, so you might want that sim to be part of a family and not living on their own. They should not be employed in maxis type careers, which is why they are in a different category.

Midwife -- must be summoned to attend every birth and is paid with whatever the birthing parents grow or harvest or fish; use Give Gift to pay her. The Midwife stays for 3-4 hours and does anything she can to make the baby, mother and other family members comfortable –cuddle, feed, bathe, cook, clean, etc.

Healer -- can be used and paid similarly to the Midwife -- summoned to a sick Sim's home to give backrubs, massages and make comfort soup.

Gypsy Matchmaker -- can make his/her living performing on community lots for tips, or be used and paid similarly to the Midwife -- summoned to a Sim's home to be a matchmaker (make introductions) or tell fortunes.

Apothecary -- can run a pharmacy-type Home Business (Yeoman) or Community Lot Business (Merchant) and sell healing potions, comfort soup and such.

Physician – this is the one exception to the no Maxis careers rule – a physician can either have the medical career, or can have a "clinic" in his or her home (Yeoman) or Community Business Lot (Merchant) where Sims can visit and pay high fees to be examined and "cured".

Barber-Surgeon -- can do makeovers, and surgery (with the sim blender or the maxis job reward surgery thingy).

Painter -- sell paintings from home or at a market, and could even be commissioned by rich merchants, gentry and nobility to do portraits for a tidy sum!

Piper, Juggler, Street Performer, Busker – these artisans can make their living performing on community lots for tips, or by performing on the stage.

Bard – a Poet/Writer who can make his/her living by performing for gentry and nobility in their homes; from using Mog’s “Become an author ... without a computer” mod; or by performing on the stage.

Minstrel – a member of a musical band who can make his/her living by performing for gentry and nobility in their homes or by performing on the stage.

Hope this is helpful!
Cheers, Vllygrl

For anyone who may be interested, here is the link to Bethgael's next lot in the series built specifically for the Medieval Charter Challenge :

http://www.medievalsims.com/forums/....php?f=53&t=790

It is a Knight/Squire lot, very pretty garden! Thanks, Bethgael!

Cheers, Vllygrl

Halloo, Medieval Simmers!

Just a quick update to let you know that Bethgael over at Plumbbob Keep has added a Hedge Tavern lot to her Medieval Charter Challenge lots series, and also an index with great pictures of the next lots in the series, coming soon:

Hedge Tavern: http://www.medievalsims.com/forums/....php?f=52&t=878

Index: http://www.medievalsims.com/forums/....php?f=25&t=702

Have a look, they are really well done!

Cheers, Vllygrl

Just a quick update -- the Checklist has been edited to add the Colleges needed for the last level of the challenge -- somehow I left them off the list! You can just add them to the last requirements section, or re-download the pdf. It has been updated in the first post and in post # 50.

You might also find of interest the following new lot at the Plumbbob Keep:

The Fairground (and other lots) by epo:

http://www.medievalsims.com/forums/...14&p=9812#p9812

The Farmer's Cottage by child_of_air --

http://www.medievalsims.com/forums/....php?f=53&t=918

. . . and her other fantastic lots at The Medieval Smithy.

Cheers, Vllygrl

I'm really looking forward to trying this challenge! I was going to do the Warwickshire Challenge, and was reading through all the rules for that, when I stumbled across this one. This looks like it can serve as a precursor to WC - so I can build up my kingdom and then play it out with the WC rules, since by then it will be a thriving city. I'm sure I'll have lots of questions (as I can think of them - it's early and I'm half asleep at the moment). But one I can think of right now is the harvestable strawberries and mushrooms. In the thread, the creator says it doesn't work correctly with Seasons. Anyone having an issue with this?

I rolled the weirdest families. And I used the number generator found in the attached file instead of dice.

Peasant Family 1:
Teen - M - Romance - Aries

Peasant Family 2:
Elder - M - Popularity - Aries
Adult - M - Popularity - Capricorn
Teen - M - Popularity - Scorpio

Peasant Family 3:
Elder - M - Popularity - Scorpio
Elder - M - Popularity - Capricorn
Elder - F - Knowledge - Virgo
Toddler - M - Capricorn

Peasant Family 4:
Elder - F - Romance - Gemini
Teen - M - Knowledge - Aries
Teen - M - Knowledge - Taurus
Teen - F - Pleasure - Pisces

Gentry Family:
Adult - M - Family - Sagittarius
Adult - M - Fortune - Scorpio
Child - F - Pisces
Toddler - M- Sagittarius

And I already scrapped the family that rolled up as 3 children and a toddler. I'm trying to decide if I want to be adventurous and try to play them (I suppose I could always roll up another random family if one of these doesn't make it), or scrap them all and start over. Only 2 potential marriageable females out of the whole lot. And they're young yet.

For the third family, the elders will likely all die off before the child reaches teen. I'm not really that afraid of having a child living alone, but I'm going to need some sort of bill payer so the bills won't get past due, and he won't be able to pay taxes at all. Hmm. Or would soldiers come and take him the monastery? What would happen to the property? Since it belongs to the Gentry Family, would it just sit and wait for another family to move in?

The more I think about it, the more I want to try and see if I can survive with such a weird assortment of families. And to think I was going to add the Realistic Sickness Mod right away. Maybe I should wait on that, lol. They're going to have it hard enough as it is.

Ileeya, I think you've got just the right idea here--the WC requires a well established hood from the start (or at least it would really help). Good luck with the MCC--it's really well thought out and looks like a lot of fun to play!

Thanks, M3g7e. I love the idea of both challenges, and I'm looking forward to getting started. I was very attracted to WC because of the harsh environment of the challenge - not because I'm a morbid person and want to kill a bunch of sims, but because life for my sims is always ridiculously easy - they always get what they want and they're always happy...yawn. Last year I was trying to find a mod that would introduce some darker edge to gameplay, but never found anything, and then went on to start up a Royal Kingdom Challenge. After a couple of generations, I lost my steam, because even the peasants were rich and mostly happy. And I'm too much of a coward to be mean to them, now, lol. So if I start the challenge and things are rough for my sims in the very beginning, then I'll be able to play it easier. I'm thinking about incorporating some of your die rolling for childbirth live/die, because I wouldn't be able to put it in later. I'm wondering if I'll be able to make a roll and stick to it when a sim's life is on the line. Between these two challenges, I'll have an entirely new way to play the game. :o)

Hi Ileeya and Welcome! (And thanks for the nice comments, M3g7e!)
Your families as rolled sound like an interesting challenge -- I can see you've already got some great storylines cooking! Being used to always starting with CAS couples, I was not at all used to the Prosperity Challenge style of rolling for your families and the first time I tried it I was rather alarmed at what I ended up with -- however, it blew a fresh wind through my dusty, fusty style of playing and I quickly learned to love it!
M3g7e is absolutely right, the two challenges can dovetail quite nicely! And I agree with a comment she's mentioned before, that the Warwickshire Challenge (and in my opinion the MCC as well) is really more of a playing style than a challenge.
I hope you enjoy the challenge, Ileeya, and please do ask if you have more questions!
Cheers, Vllygrl

Thanks!

I've decided to stick with the families I rolled - at the very least, it will be different and interesting. At the worst, a family may die out (in which case I'll roll up another to take their place).

I really like how both you and M3g7e have reminded us how these challenges are more of a playing style than a hard and set challenge - this allows me the flexibility to adapt it to my style of play. I like aelflaed's idea to integrate a few townies into the households for my peasants. My starting families have no marriageable females amongst them, and I'm always curious to see how my pretty new townies are going to look. Whenever I create a new neighborhood, I exit the game, find the neighborhood file - the character file within that - and delete everything in it. NEVER do this after you've made a sims for the neighborhood - because they'll be deleted, too. So I'll have no fug maxis townies in my new hood. Then I just create a new batch of townies using the boolprop cheat so they spawn with my default faces.

I'll be creating my new families tonight and setting up my 'hood. Exciting!

Sounds terrific, Ileeya! I am most intrigued by your approach to townies, and you might be interested in Bethgael's method explained here: http://www.medievalsims.com/forums/...&t=485&start=40
Also, there is a lot of great information and discussion on the MCC thread over at the Keep here: http://www.medievalsims.com/forums/....php?f=96&t=485

I am in the process of creating a new neighbourhood right now as well, and I would love to generate some new townies -- have you never had a problem deleting the contents of the characters file prior to creating any new CAS sims? I would love to try that! It seems much easier than trying to install the empty neighbourhood templates, which I can never figure out because the tutorials take too much for granted and skip steps.

Play style is a big reason why I am such a fan of Random Occurence Scenarios! I have one for the MCC (an attachment in the first post of this thread) and aelflaed's is an awesome one as well (in the Warwickshire Challenge thread http://www.modthesims.info/showthre...25#startcomment, post # 173).
Cheers, Vllygrl

Thank you, vllygrl. I've been doing the create-a-neighborhood-deleting-character-files thing for years and never noticed a problem. That's not to say there couldn't be one, though, so always make backups before trying anything. This thread explains it a bit: http://www.sunsims.com/forums/showthread.php?t=269 - though I can't remember where I originally came across this information. I do remember reading that it was an alternative to the potentially dangerous 'deleteallcharacters' cheat - which I had used twice - the first time it didn't work - the second time did but caused massive massive lag with my pc. Everything in that neighborhood was soooo slooooww. And stayed that way. And I was ever so sick of calling maxis townies to my lot and destroying them. I haven't had to have a Melissa Fancey or Goopy in my 'hood for years. This particular thread has you zipping up your character file somewhere and storing it before deleting the contents. Like anything with Sims, use with caution. I had mentioned this to a gal one time, and she ran off to try it, forgetting she had sims already living in that hood and she didn't have a backup.

Thank you so much for all the links! I recently registered over at the Keep (I'm Astral Faery there, and most everywhere else I go in the Sims community), and have yet to make it all the way around the site. There's a lot to see! I really like Bethgael's townie ideas - makes for some interesting twists for the game instead of just having random people out of nowhere wandering around. Zombies for lepers! That's classic (and going to have to happen in my hood, lol).

Awesome, Ileeya! Thanks for the great information -- I am going to try it in this new hood, been searching for a solution this simple for a long time. Glad to know you registered over at the keep -- I'll keep an eye out for Astral Faery over there, it's a great place! Lots of good info and friendly, helpful types who really love medieval.

Looking forward to your tales and comments about the challenge, let us know how it goes with that wild assortment of families!
Cheers, Vllygrl

I hope it works well for you, vllygrl - but for the love of Pete - make backups first. I would hate to encourage anyone to try something that didn't work for them. Like I said, I've done it many times and it's worked for me, and I've never seen any problems, but it seems to be difficult to find any information on that method.

The families have been created, and now I'm trying to build their lots. I have questions...lots of them.

I'm only about halfway done building the gentry family's home. In the study, you say '1 chest'. What do you mean by chest - like an armoire? A chest for keeping things in, yes? If so, where would I find one to download? For now I have put a dresser in it for lack of anything else suitable.

For the dining hall...1 buffet. A buffet table? Or could I use a coffee table or counters? Or is it a buffet table for entertaining dinner guests?

Are we allowed to use the money cheat for building the Gentry house? The family only has 7k left and I haven't even started on the upstairs, yet. They still need beds, toiletries, a nursery, etc. Or are they supposed to work their way up to the amounts you have in the furnishings chart? Currently, the lot is only valued at 18k - and there are no windows, wall, or flooring.

I do like, however, being told how many of each type of furnishing to put in each room, because building is so not my thing. Building my rooms around the furnishings is helping me come up with a more interesting looking house than what I would have normally built, which would have been a box, lol.

Thanks! I am making backups as we speak! And you're right -- it is difficult to find information on anything other than the empty/cleaned up templates, and as I say, the tutorials for those are not very clear in a step-by-step fashion. As to your questions, here goes:

*chest -- like a treasure chest or hope chest type of thing -- as an example: http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=374497


* buffet -- such as a china cabinet or hutch for displaying pottery, pewter, etc., depends on what fits the particular house/family

*money -- build the house first according to the charts ( low cost $; medium cost $$; or expensive $$$) and THEN use familyfunds to give the family their starting money amount.

I hope these answers help! I like your building method of building around the furnishings -- probably makes for a much more interesting house. Specifying the furnishings is something I got from playing the Victorian Population Challenge, and it keeps the families more equal at their starting point.

Thanks for your prompt answers. That's a relief! I was going crazy trying to stretch their starting money (which was only about 30k for the 4 of them) and still get everything they were supposed to have. I was tearing down walls, moving things into a tighter floor plan, buying cheaper furniture, LOL!

Thanks for the clarifications on the furniture - now I know what to look for.

I have my starter families ready for their homes. I admit I was lazy and copied this from where I originally posted over at Sugah's Place, but I've already been sitting at this computer waaay too long and I didn't want to set the post up all over again. And I really need to get up and go clean that kitchen...blah.


This is my Gentry Family - The Quartermaine Family. From left to right we have adult brothers Benedict and Charles, the children are both Benedict's - little girl Isabella, and baby Nathaniel. Their mother died in childbirth. I don't really have a backstory on them yet.



The Bradshawe Family. Teen Julian will be on his own, as his dad is merely a placeholder. So the story I've made up for Julian is that his former village was wiped out by the plague. After the death of his mother, his father Julius, decided they needed a fresh start and heard of the lush landscapes and ponds full of fish of the settlement of Shorehaven. But Julius was weakened and barely survived the trip, only to die shortly after moving into their new house - leaving Julian on his own. His profession will be fishing.



The Goldwell Family. Elder Richard, his son Nicholas, and grandson Luke. Like father, like son, like son? Nicholas always looked up to his father Richard, just as his own son looks up to him. All three aspire to be popular and offer their wares of foraged mushrooms and strawberries to the community.



The Gardyner Family. Sadly, the father holding the toddler is only a placeholder - because the game doesn't allow you to make elders and kids and connect them through family ties without going through an adult. Stupid, I know. Three elders and a baby. From left to right the elders - Hugh, Ellen, and Reynard. The baby's name is Gabriel. Ellen and Reynard are married, and Gabriel is their grandson. They lost their son (I already forgot his name since he'll be killed as soon as the family moves in), and I believe I made Hugh a brother of Ellen. They, too, fled their former life to get a fresh start. Will Shorehaven have more to offer them? They will be gardeners and poultry farmers.



The Wylde Family. Again - another placeholder - the lady in the (mauve?) dress. So ignore her. The teens from left to right - Walter, Rose, and Piers, and their grandmother Bridgette. Perhaps the teens' mother was persecuted for witchcraft because she gave birth to triplets and the family fled to Shorehaven to escape the public eye. Whatever the case may be, they'll never tell. This family will have an orchard and beehives to make their living. And incidentally, how beautiful is teen Rose? Even in this family shot she stands boldly in the middle, slightly apart from her brothers. As one of the very few eligible females of the entire neighborhood, I admit I already have a soft spot for her and thought the name Rose Wylde was just the coolest ever. I know we're not supposed to pick favorites, but...

Wish them all luck!

Thanks so much for posting pictures, Ileeya! It is always so great when people post pictures so we can peek into your game a bit! I really like the sounds of your back stories so far . . . looking forward to hearing where it goes next! Good luck indeed to all your new families!

Thanks, vllygrl. It is ok that I post pictures here, right? We share a lot at my other forum and I wasn't quite sure if that was accepted here or if I should put them somewhere else. By now I have 2 of my peasants moved into their new home, and 2 yet to place. All 4 peasant houses are located right around the Quatermaine house.


I figured out a bit of a story for the Quartermaine family. This shot was actually taken at the Goldwell house - both Benedict Quartermaine and Jon Steward (he's the steward of the castle) are chatting over a hot bowl of kasha. Benedict (a family sim) wants a woman in his life since he lost his last wife to (childbirth, plague, whathaveyou). I have played each family for one day so far to establish their lives a little and make sure their house was set up ok. Benedict's brother Charles works in Intelligence, and Benedict stays home and keeps up the house and takes care of the children - all the while rolling up wants to get married, kiss, and flirt. Poor guy is lonely. I like him.


At the Bradshawe house, Julian casually walks away while his father is being claimed by death. Jeez kid, have a little sympathy, eh?


Immediately upon moving onto their new lot, I caught the Goldwells doing this. It always cracks me up when they gossip in front of who they're talking about.


And then 5 minutes later!


The only two teens in the neighborhood so far hate each other. Within just a couple of sim hours, Julian Bradshawe and Luke Goldwell were having it out.


Fishing at sunset at the Bradshawe pond. I just installed Gunmod's Radiance Lighting system: http://modthesims.info/download.php?t=290746 Oh my gosh! I can't believe I've been playing sims for years and haven't tried this before now. I just can't get over how beautiful everything looks, all the shadows and highlights, and the textures are more crisp. My sims can now enjoy a sunrise and sunset. Well, they probably don't really care - but I sure am loving it! I highly recommend it! Looks great for this time period with the candle lighting inside the house, too.

Your families look awesome, Ileeya, thanks for posting! I'm sure it's ok to post pictures, everyone seems to do it. I have had to restart my neighbourhood and doing the challenge from scratch as my game was giving me problems, so I am in the process of building and setting up families again. That's ok, but I hope the game doesn't start acting weird again!

I love the idea of this. I just rolled my families and played the first two seasons. My theme is less medieval and more space western. (Using mostly maxis stuff.) The families were dropped off onto a new planet with the basic supplies. In the 4 peasant and 1 gentry family I had 19 people.

Family 1: Healwright - After Faile, a midwife, couldn't save the duke newborn son she was shipped off with her ailing mother Gertie to settle a new planet with a few trees and beehives


Family 2: Fisher - Abel and Belle brought their kids, teens Caleb and Darla, and toddler Ella to raise pigs and fish. hoping they could better their children's lives.

Family 3: Layer - Widow Harriette moved her 4 sons, teen Issac, Child Jayne, and twin toddlers Kyle, and Kinkade hoping that chicken ranching and growing some tomatoes would be easier off-planet.

family 4 - Fields - Widow Maryn uprooted her mother, Lenore, along with her three kids, Teens Noland, and Odella, and toddler Paulo to farm on the new planet. she brought two milking cows along too.

Family 5 - Whenceforth (Gentry) - Minstrel Quinten wasn't sure who he pissed off, but suddenly he was in charge of getting a bunch of dirt farmers and a baby killer to settle a new planet. His daughter, Mami, was recently widowed, so he took her and her three kids with him. But she dies of internal parasites on the trip to /blackthorne. Now he has a child Rowan, and the toddler twins, Shane and Sheila to raise. Worse, there is no one to play for, or any way to be paid.

In the first two seasons one family has already moved to yeoman, and I have a fairground, town park, church and graveyard. I've included ROS's and have had three deaths, one birth, and a war was just announced!

One Question: Settlements are only supposed to barter, but if my yeoman is set up as a home business, can let them choose anything to sell. we're really short on cribs, beds, and such.

Welcome, Kstaron! I am glad you like the challenge and it sounds like you have made some great progress already! I love the sounds of your space western theme and your families and their backstories. It's also great to hear that you are using ROS's -- it sure adds that random touch, doesn't it?
To answer your question, really only merchants could sell that type of merchandise. Yeoman are supposed to sell from their home business only basically what they could make, craft or grow, such as baked goods, pottery, flowers, beef/cattle, sewing, toys, etc. However, since tinkering and toymaking are allowed, if you have a yeoman who specializes in one of those areas, it's not a far stretch to think he could be a woodcarver and craft wooden furniture.
Looking forward to hearing more about your settlers! I have completed my uninstall and reinstall, just now preparing to prune and reorganize my downloads, then I think I will be able to start my new 'hood and restart the challenge.
Cheers, Vllygrl

Thank you for your comments, vllygrl.

Kstaron - I also really like your space western setting - and your backstories are great. You sound like you're making awesome progress, and any tips you can share would be welcome.

My families are all struggling. Badly. I've been through 3 seasons, and most of them barely have enough to cover rent and taxes - I mean 50% of all their earned income goes to taxes and rent on top of that. It keeps them very poor, and I like that part, but I'm having trouble making a profit off the farm animals. They don't breed very often and aren't worth that much, so the chicken and pig farmers are barely hanging in there. The orchardists were only able to buy 3 fruit trees and 2 hives with their initial $5,000 set up amount, which didn't give them much the first couple of seasons. Since the death of the grandmother, they were able to buy more trees and hives (with the insurance money), so it's going to be a long while before anyone advances in my neighborhood. I'm not sure how to change that without breaking a rule, but it's getting kind of boring because I'm so eager for all of my sims to earn a trade like pottery or sewing, toymaking, etc. I do have a marketplace now, though.

Originally, I wanted to follow the childbirth tables for the Warwickshire Challenge, as my idea was to merge the two and I thought it would be easier to stick to the hard rules right away. But then I rolled my first mother death - and the child failed his roll, also - and I even had a midwife. I proceeded to kill off the mother and I actually looked away from the screen because I felt guilty! Sheesh. I'm such a softie. I decided, instead, that I would follow the rolling rules, but instead of death, if the mother failed the roll then she would fall into an incurable depression and need to be institutionalized. Or I could roll for her each season or something, adding modifiers for each season - like she fails in fall, so she gets a -1 for winter, and if she fails in winter, she'll get a -2 for spring, etc., making it more likely she would never be cured. And if the baby also failed the roll, then maybe I'll just say the mother went crazy, stole the baby, and ran away, then maybe roll each season to see if she's discovered. Either way, I just wasn't able to kill off innocent sims, lol.

You could always plead for her. I hate to kill sims too--and I generally try to weasel out of doing it, but I must say on the times that I stuck by it, I was thankful I did--the story got better as a result.

Hi, I'm back after a long vacation away. I went out and bought the Sims medieval. It kept me busy for a couple days, but I wound up missing this challenge so I'm back.

One thing I started doing is after a family is created I roll to see how many days they are into their phase. I only do this for teens, adults and elders. This way I have more variety and they're all different ages so it's a little more staggered. Oh, yes and I use SimPE to do it.

I've included some pictures.

Oh, thanks to ROS one of my peasant families got a large inheritance which means they are ready to move on up the social scale.

Welcome back, pmw76! Interesting to hear you tried out Sims Medieval -- it sounds like you had a similar experience to me with Sims 3! I haven't tried TSM yet myself although I have been tempted.
Your rolls for ages within stages sounds like a great idea -- I've never used SimPE so I'd have to figure that out first if I was going to try it. ROFL -- yay for ROS inheritances!
I have just finished uninstalling/reinstalling and I am in the process of setting up a new hood and new families, but I am forcing myself to sort and reorganize my downloads, as that folder was getting madly out of control! The problem is, there is so much fantastic medieval cc for Sims 2 that I can't keep my hands off the stuff!
Thanks for the great pictures -- sure gave me my laugh for the day to see the expressions on the face of the girl and then the big fight!
Cheers, Vllygrl